Driver assistance systems for highly automated driving are at present in the formative phase. Precautions with regard to functional safety concepts are often present in only very rudimentary fashion, and for the most part are still backed up by human intervention. Market introduction requires functional safety concepts that are entirely or partly fail-operational (critical faults are recognized; the minimum necessary functionality continues to be implemented safely even in the event of a fault). Present-day systems in the automotive environment are implemented predominantly in fail-safe fashion (critical faults are recognized; functionality is transferred into a safe state).
Systems for highly automated driving are technically complex. They require high computational performance and a large memory. Complete implementation of such large systems as fail-operational is possible today only with great difficulty.